Systems and methods for mobile point-of-sale process management

Abstract

Systems (100) and methods (800) for managing Mobile Point Of Sale (“MPOS”) services of a retail store (102). The methods involve obtaining customer information specifying sensed activities and locations of customers (114) currently present in the retail store. Next, customer demands of the MPOS services are predicted based on the customer information. The MPOS services facilitate a purchase transaction by a customer for purchasing at least one item (116) offered for sale within the retail store. Thereafter, the MPOS services are managed based at least on the predicted customer demands of the MPOS services. Additionally, the MPOS services can be further managed based on employee information specifying sensed activities and locations of employees (150) within the retail store.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 776,065 filed Mar. 11, 2013, which is herein incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This document relates generally to systems and methods for Mobile Point-Of-Sale (“MPOS”) process management. More particularly, this document relates to systems and methods for retail shopper surveillance facilitating the management of a mobile POS process.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]In order to make MPOS solutions practical inside retail store settings, customers who wish to pay for their selected items must be able to find a sales associate who has authority and means to perform a MPOS transaction. From the retailer's perspective, employee productivity is increased when the employees currently assigned to MPOS duties can quickly find store customers ready to checkout. If waiting or line queuing is involved in this process, much of the purpose of the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]Furthermore, the described features, advantages and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, in light of the description herein, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.

Problems solved by technology

If waiting or line queuing is involved in this process, much of the purpose of the MPOS service is defeated.

Thus, retailers wishing to implement MPOS services in their retail stores are faced with the problem of getting together in a timely and labor efficient manner the MPOS staff on duty and the customers ready to use the MPOS service.

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